Loranda Vazquez

Loranda's LUSH story begins fresh out of university. Knowing she wanted to write for a living, but not knowing where to start, she turned to her friends and family for words of wisdom. Loranda's father-in-law gave her the following advice: "Find a company that you love, and find out how to do what you love for that company". She applied at one place - LUSH.
Loranda began as a sales associate and voiced her dream of one day becoming a copywriter. In the shop, she learned about the brand, products and ingredients and moved into managing. Next she traveled around North America setting up new stores and training staff on LUSH merchandising with the Design Team. She practiced her LUSH writing every day! Finally a position opened up for copywriter - her dream job! Since the spring of 2009, Loranda's been writing for the LUSH Times, the website and everything in between.

Sep09.25

One hit wonders: 10 LUSH products inspired by song

There's something that draws us all towards LUSH; our senses! We tend to be quite a sensual group around here, and by that we mean in tune to all our senses. Our inventers are inspired by sights (Australian sunsets), tastes (crème brulee desserts) and sounds when making new products. They are usually listening to music in their labs while inventing, so it's really no surprise that music has consistently been a huge source of inspiration for product inventions over the years. Here we've compiled ten LUSH products you may not have known were inspired by song:

Sex Bomb- Straight in at number one is the world famous LUSH bomb, named in a contest by a young customer. Inspired by the Tom Jones song "Sex Bomb", this bomb's made for lovin'. Packed with every sensual, relaxing oil we could find, including clary sage, jasmine, ylang ylang and even soya milk so you can step out of the tub feeling confident, smooth and sexy. Just like the musician it was inspired by, Sex Bomb has become a massively popular award-winner.

Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds - When LUSH first began in the mid-nineties, trance and ambient music were quite popular. One day Mark was listening to The Orb's song Little Fluffy Clouds in the lab, and he thought "I could do a bubble bar like this. I can make the sky as the water, the blue, and then the fluffy white clouds are the bubbles. And if we put patchouli and olibanum and lovely hippy oils like that we've got an ambient bath." It worked very well and it's been phenomenally popular ever since.

The Voice of Reason - Mark and Simon Constantine, father and son LUSH perfumers, were sitting across from each other in their lab above the Poole LUSH shop in England. They were listening to the voice of writer and spoken word poet William S Burroughs. They were inspired by the writing of the Beat Generation and the Bill Callahan song, I'm New Here, sung by Gil Scott Heron and remixed by Jamie XX. They set to work creating a perfume that was not merely nostalgic of the beats, but that smelled as if you'd just seen Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Kerouac, Ginsberg, the whole lot, walk right past you and through a secret door to a club, and all you have is the scent of them lingering in the air.

Karma Komba- Massive Attack fans will recognize this nod to the single, Karmacoma from their second album, Protection. We knew we had to use Karma in the name as this bar contains the classic LUSH patchouli, lemongrass and orange oil perfume. Plus, Karma Komba will ease your tangles so you can comba it more easily. Massive Attack has won a few awards over the years, and so have our shampoo bars, including the Best Green Packaging Award in 2008. There's no greener packaging than no packaging!

Superworld Unknown- LUSH perfumers Mark and Simon Constantine met the charismatic Swedish singer, Karin Park, when she stopped into the B Never Too Busy to be Beautiful store in England. B Never, which has since closed its doors, was LUSH's sister vegan cosmetic company. They spoke about how music can influence fragrance creation and she left her "Superworldunkown" album behind for them, which inspired this exclusive perfume. The title track was written for someone who had lost a loved one, to get them out of bed and make them see the world as a wonderful place again. In the refrain, she sings "The sun is up today, challenging the rain, in this superworldunknown".

Sympathy for the Skin - Please allow me to introduce Sympathy for the Skin, with freshly mashed bananas, almond oil and vanilla pod infusion to keep skin soft and moisturized all day. We knew this rich cream would be sympathetic to skin woes, so we named it after The Rolling Stone's song, Sympathy for the Devil. Sympathy for the Skin has been around for over a decade, and has become a much-loved classic.

Strawberry Feels Forever- This may be one of the most obvious song references, Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles. A classic song for our fresh strawberry and hibiscus massage bar that takes you away to that special place, where nothing is real and there's nothing to get hung about. We love the way the song makes us feel, as though we're drifting along in another world, which is truly the way a good massage should make us feel. Perfect.

It's Raining Men - For the very first time in history, the scrumptious honey-toffee fragrance of Honey I Washed the Kids soap became available in shops in shower gel form. Lathering up with this honey wash in the shower made us want to sing God Bless Mother Nature! Hallelujah!, and so The Weather Girls inspired us to name it It's Raining Men. We like to think the LUSH inventors re-arranged the formula so each and every person could find the perfect shower gel!

Tuca Tuca - This whimsical, violet and vanilla perfume is inspired by an Italian pop-song and the dance it's based on. While LUSH co-founder Rowena Bird was visiting the Italian LUSHies, they danced the Tuca Tuca. This combined rather beautifully with Simon's idea of treating perfumes as though they were music tracks. So Mira (resident songbird) sang a cover of the famous song and requested a violet perfume. Insert Italian reference Tuca Tuca.

Golden Slumbers - Golden Slumbers is a bedtime Bath Bomb with the calming herbal scent of lavender oil, lavender absolute, fresh lavender sprigs and chamomile oil. The song Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight by The Beatles was inspired by lyrics from "Cradle Song", a lullaby by Thomas Dekker. Some of the lyrics mirror the original lullaby; "Golden Slumbers fill your eyes, smiles await you when you rise. Sleep pretty darling, do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby". Do you play music while you're drawing, writing, creating? Which musicians or songs do you enjoy listening to during your creative process? Check out the songs that inspired us. Maybe they'll inspire you!